The Collected Poems (33 page)

“In Utica,” 330–32

“I returned years later,” 228

Isadora Duncan, 399–401

“I saw prophets tearing their false beards,” 337

Island, 225

“I slow diver won't touch,” 15

“I sowed the idea of infinity,” 34–35

Is There Anything Else I Can Do for You Sir, 557

It Came to Mind, 542–43

“It did not take any great character,” 409–10

“it emerges,” 164

“It happens very rarely” (M/S), 218

“It has been raining all morning,” 143

“I thought” (M/S), 99–100

“I thought:” 31–32

“it is not very big,” 198–99

“It is said of me,” 371–74

“It is truly no evidence of a great soul,” 527

“It's a boardinghouse for plants, run very strictly like a convent school,” 143

“It's completely black, but has an electric tail,” 132

“it's fresh,” 230

“It's good what happened” (M/S), 84

“It's neither fish nor fowl,” 485

“It's unclear whether anyone knows its personal zoological name, so small is it,” 533

“It usually begins innocently enough with an acceleration, unnoticeable at first, of the turning of the earth” (M/S), 262

“It was a bird, or rather a pitiful remnant of a bird, eaten away by parasites,” 148–49

“It was in the year twenty” (M/S), 122–23

“It wasn't the path of truth it was simply a path,” 232

“It was on the road to Delphi,” 140

“It was the loveliest blue sky of my life: hard, and so pure that it took your breath away,” 206

“It will be a night of deep snow,” 127–28

“I've decided to return to the emperor's court” (M/S), 184–85

“I walk on the sea-shore” (M/S), 67–68

“I was a quiet boy a little sleepy and-amazingly—,”471–72

“I was playing out in the street,” 124–25

“I was talking of battles” (M/S), 200

“I was very young,” 521–22

“I will never forget you—the fleeting maidens and ladies,” 491–92

“…I won't sing of Felek Stankiewicz now,” 556

I Would Like to Describe (M/S), 65–66

“I would like to describe the simplest emotion” (M/S), 65–66

“Jan came by this morning,” 75–76

Japanese Tale, 150

Jonah (M/S), 182–83

“Jonah son of Amittai” (M/S), 182–83

Journey, 437–39

Journey to Kraków (M/S), 72–73

Just Autumn, 181

“justice should be rendered to him,” 110–11

Kant. Last Days, 527

Khodasevich, 496–97

Knocker, A (M/S), 78

Lament, 343

Landscape, 436

Last Attack. To Klaus, The, 531

Last Request, 173–74

Leo's Death, 453–56

Life, A, 109–13, 471–72

Life of a Warrior (M/S), 145–46

“Light of my childhood,” 460–62

“Like a clumsy bumblebee,” 98

Lines of a Pantheist, 37

Little Bird, A, 120–21

Little Town, 136

“living—despite,” 6–7

Livy's Metamorphoses, 423–24

Longobards, The (M/S), 241

Look, 26

“Lord, grant me the ability to compose a long sentence, whose line, customarily from breath to breath, is a line spanned like a suspension bridge like a rainbow the alpha and omega of the ocean,” 516

“Lord help us to imagine a fruit,” 517

“Lord, I give thanks to You for this whole jumble of life in which I have been drowning helplessly from time immemorial, dead set on a constant search for trifles,” 515

“Lord, I know my days are numbered,” 518

“Lord I thank You for creating the world beautiful and various,” 347–48

Lullaby, 367–68

Lumberjack, 219

Lyrical Zone, 545

Mademoiselle Corday, 474

Madonna with Lion, 95

Madwoman, 133

Malachowski's Ravine, 245

Mama, 31–32

“Mango blossoms in white sun in black rain,” 162–63

“many years ago,” 537–38

“Marked in the guidebook by two stars (in fact there are more) the whole principality—that is to say the city,” 169

“mark the place” (M/S), 193–94

Mass for the Imprisoned, 428–29

Maturity (M/S), 84

Meditations on Father, 273

Messenger, 402

“Metamorphoses down to the sources of history,” 363

“Mircea Eliade is right,” 304–6

Mirror Wanders the Road, A, 493–95

“Miss Amelia of Darmstadt,” 320–21

Missing Knot, The, 256

“Mr Cogito,” 331–32, 349–51, 353–54, 358–60, 387–90, 404–8, 444–46, 446–48, 501–2, 503–5

Mr Cogito. A Calligraphy Lesson, 559–60

Mr Cogito and a Poet of a Certain Age, 299–301

Mr Cogito and Longevity, 358–60

Mr Cogito and Maria Rasputin—An Attempt at Contact, 391–96

Mr Cogito and Pop, 302–303

Mr Cogito and Pure Thought, 283–84

Mr Cogito and the Imagination, 352–54

Mr Cogito and the Little Creature, 533

Mr Cogito and the Movement of Thought, 287

Mr Cogito and the Pearl, 276

Mr Cogito. Ars Longa, 536–38

“Mr Cogito attempts,” 283–84

Mr Cogito Bemoans the Pettiness of Dreams, 298

Mr Cogito Comes Across a Statuette of the Great Mother in the Louvre, 307

Mr Cogito Considers a Return to His Native Town, 278

Mr Cogito Considers the Difference Between the Human Voice and the Voice of Nature, 295

“Mr Cogito has never trusted,” 352–54

“Mr Cogito holds in his arms,” 289

“Mr Cogito is unsettled by,” 504–5

Mr Cogito—Notes from the House of the Dead, 411–15

Mr Cogito Observes a Deceased Friend, 290–91

Mr Cogito on a Set Topic: “Friends Depart,” 498–502

Mr Cogito on Magic, 304–6

Mr Cogito on the Need for Precision, 404–8

Mr Cogito on Upright Attitudes, 330–32

Mr Cogito on Virtue, 361–62

Mr Cogito Reads the Newspaper, 285–86

Mr Cogito Reflects on Suffering, 279–80

“Mr Cogito's,” 325–28

Mr Cogito's Abyss, 281–82

Mr Cogito's Adventures with Music, 443–48

Mr Cogito's Alienations, 289

Mr Cogito's Appointment Books, 503–5

Mr Cogito Seeks Advice, 323–24

Mr Cogito's Eschatological Premonitions, 364–66

Mr Cogito's Game, 325–28

Mr Cogito's Heraldic Meditations, 434

Mr Cogito's Late Autumn Poem for Women's Magazines, 293

Mr Cogito's Monster, 375–78

Mr Cogito Sometimes Receives Odd Letters, 320–21

Mr Cogito's Other World, 566–67

Mr Cogito's Reflections on Redemption, 322

Mr Cogito's Soul, 341–42

Mr Cogito Studies His Face in the Mirror, 271

Mr Cogito Tells of the Temptation of Spinoza, 314–16

Mr Cogito—The Return, 349–51

Mr Cogito. The Soul's Current Position, 534–35

Mr Cogito Thinks about Blood, 387–90

Mitteleuropa, 485

Mona Lisa (M/S), 170–72

Moon, 151

“More rain with snow is being woven,” 541

Mother, 274

Mother and Her Little Boy, A, 130

My Ancestors' Hands, 475

My City, 104–5

“My defenseless country will welcome you invader,” 403

My Father, 13

“My father liked Anatole France,” 13 “My friend from the anthology of Slavonic rhymesters,” 496–97

“My God,” 361–62

“My inner voice” (M/S), 203–4

“my most saintly grandmother,” 513–14

“My portable empire between Athens and Megara,” 381

Nail in the Sky, A, 206

Naked Town (M/S), 188

Native Devil, 248

Navel, 561

Nefertiti, 71

Nepenthes Family, The, 425

“Never” (M/S), 102–3

Never of You, 82

“Nike is most beautiful at the moment” (M/S), 48–49

Nike Who Hesitates (M/S), 48–49

“no one saw,” 412–14

“No surprise,” 361–62

“not everything,” 566–67

“Not heads snuffed by the sharp shadow of pennants,” 126

Nothing Special (M/S), 159

“nothing special” (M/S), 159

“Not much will remain Ryszard in truth not much,” 356–57

“now,” 395–96

“now” (M/S), 194

“now Mr Cogito,” 407–8

“Now that we're alone we can talk prince man to man” (M/S), 186–87

“now you have” (M/S), 194–95

Oaks, 421–22

Oath, 491–92

“obey the counsels” (M/S), 195

Objects (M/S), 131

“Obviously,” 338–40

Old Age, 563

Old Masters, 345–46

Old Prometheus, 309

“O my seven-stringed board” (M/S), 175

On a Boy Killed by the Police, 530

“on a moonless night,” 299

On a Rose, 21–22

“Once an eagle perhaps,” 434

“Once in a garden there grew a rose” (M/S), 140

“Once in his lifetime,” 559–60

“Once there was breath on the windowpanes here, the smell of baking, the same face in the mirror,” 244

“Once upon a time there was an Emperor” (M/S), 143–44

“One,” 542–43

“On iron branches the red and green fruits of signals are ripening,” 142

“Only buttons witnesses to the crime,” 477

“only now does he understand his father,” 301

On Mr Cogito's Two Legs, 272

“On overcast autumn afternoons, Mr Cogito likes to visit the grimy neighborhoods at the edge of town,” 288

“On the plain that town flat like an iron sheet” (M/S), 188

On the Road to Delphi, 140

“On top of the house grows another house, only without a roof—a chimney,” 209

On Translating Poetry, 98

On Troy, 17–18

Organ Player, 150–51

“O river—hourglass of water figure of eternity,” 344

Ornamental but Real, 249

Ornament Makers, 116–17

Orwell's Album, 470

“O tree spreading like the tree of Genesis,” 120–21

“O Troy Troy,” 17–18

Our Fear (M/S), 176–77

“Our fear” (M/S), 176–77

“Over a light arch—,” 23

“Owing to a negligible age difference childish proximity,” 275

Pacific III (On the Peace Conference), 473

Painter, 141

Palace of Laughter, The, 147

Parable of King Midas, A (M/S), 45–46

Parable of the Russian Émigrés (M/S), 122–23

Paradise of the Theologians, The (M/S), 133–34

Passion of Our Lord Painted by Anonymous from the Circle of Rhenish Masters, The, 263

“Pastoral flutes are departed,” 118–19

Path, 232

Pebble (M/S), 197

Peepshow, 152

Period (M/S), 259

“Permit me to open by expressing joy and wonder,” 531

Phone Call, 548–49

Photograph, 369

Pica Pica L., 539–40

Pirates, 139

“Pirates are bowling,” 139

Place, 228

Poet's House, The, 244

“Pompous manifestos,” 536–38

Portrait of the Fin de Siècle, 568

Postcard from Adam Zagajewski, A, 483–84

Power of Taste, The, 409–10

Practical Recommendations in the Event of a Catastrophe (M/S), 262

“Praised be the ornament makers,” 116–17

Prayer of Old Men, 441–42

Prayer of the Traveler Mr Cogito, 347–48

Preliminary Investigation of an Angel (M/S), 238–39

Priest (M/S), 20

Priests and Peasants, 246

Princess, 130

“Princess Izanaki is fleeing a dragon with four purple and four golden claws,” 150

Principality, 169

Prologue, 223–24

Quotidian Soul, The, 292

Railway Landscapes, 142

Rain, The (M/S), 90–91

“Rap a knuckle on the wall—,” 155

“Ravaged by drugs stifled by a mantle of fumes,” 568

“Reading old chronicles, epics, and biographies, Mr Cogito sometimes feels persuaded of the physical presence of long deceased persons,” 310–11

Red Cloud, 11

Reflections on the Problem of the Nation, 189

Regicides, 379–80

Report from a Besieged City, 416–18

Report from Paradise (M/S), 240

Request, 115, 432–33

Return of the Proconsul, The (M/S), 184–85

Revelation (M/S), 201–2

“Romana said you just passed away,” 355

Rosy Ear (M/S), 99–100

Rovigo, 509

“Rovigo station. Vague associations. A Goethe play,” 509

Russian Tale, A (M/S), 151–52

Sacrifice of Iphigenia, The, 147

“Saint Ignatius,” 74

Salt of the Earth, The, 53–54

“Sea horses with fat rumps and ironic eyes and horses dressed in orange horse blankets lead the procession—,” 146

Seamstress, 143

Season, 562

Sense of Identity, 277

September 17, 403

Sequoia, 296

Seven Angels, 135–36

Seventh Angel, The (M/S), 96–97

Shame, 490

Shameful Dreams, 363

“she could no longer move her head,” 173–74

Shell, 131

“She waits on the bank of a great slow-moving river,” 253

She Was Doing Her Hair, 258

“She was doing her hair before going to bed,” 258

“She was not beautiful a nose slightly ducklike,” 399–401

Shore, 253

Silk of a Soul (M/S), 102–3

Sister, 275

Small Heart, A, 430–31

“So first the faithful dog will go” (M/S), 190

“So if there is a journey pray that it be long,” 438–39

Soldier, 144

“So many books dictionaries,” 323–24